EU Parliament Demands Targeted Sanctions for Saudi. Deeply Critical of MBS, Saudi Role in the Middle East, And Its Treatment Of Women.

[Petar + 76]

European Parliament overwhelmingly passes new resolution on Saudi Arabia. Demands targeted UN special report on human rights for Saudi. 525 votes in favor, 29 opposed, 71 abstentions. Yes, someone has to say that life in Saudi is not a fairy tale

[Rodent + 1,424]

Wasn't Saudi Arabia  re-elected to the UN's Human Rights Council and United Nations Commission on the Status of Women?

I just want to know which 29 countries opposed the measure. Does anyone have that? I can't find a source for the above.
 

[Pavel + 384]

Not just life. This is very interesting

5 minutes ago, Petar said:

... someone has to say that life in Saudi is not a fairy tale

Not just life. This is very interesting. Why? Resolution is here, all of this despite intense Saudi lobbying to derail it. Saudis tried pressuring Euros to water down the resolution. Pro-Israel lobby groups tried to help the Saudis. They both tried to get some Euro right-wing to do their bidding, but ultimately, they failed. 

[Petar + 76]

.EP and UN are not the same institutions. EP has its own jurisdiction, and they can ask for the UN to react.

[damirUSBiH + 327]

And, nothing for Iran?

[pinto + 293]

Amnesty: "Women and girls face entrenched discrimination in law and practice in Saudi Arabia. The ban on driving is only one example of the many areas of life where women in Saudi Arabia have their human rights denied"

[franco + 96]

Many of our media fawning over Saudi Arabia for their "reforms", but Saudi is a police state, a country where human rights are violated, etc.... Still, oil is very important kirk 

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

18 minutes ago, damirUSBiH said:

And, nothing for Iran?

If I could choose between the two, I'd run to Iran without looking back. 

[JunoTen + 118]

Saudi Arabia is a country with no respect for female rights or democracy. However, it buys the tolerance of other countries with its oil and weapons contracts. As the world becomes less oil dependant because of the rise of EVs and autonomous vehicles, Saudi Arabia will probably find the other countries to become less tolerant.

Edited May 31, 2018 by JunoTen

[Guillaume Albasini + 851]

By the way...

... Cambridge Analytica’s parent company helped shape Saudi Arabia’s reform movement.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/cambridge-analyticas-parent-company-helped-shape-saudi-arabias-reform-movement.html

 

"So the government of Saudi Arabia turned in recent years to the parent company of the political data firm Cambridge Analytica for help, according to Western consultants who worked in the kingdom, company executives and a review of public documents.

The work by Cambridge's parent, a secretive defense and intelligence contractor called SCL Group, presaged the tumultuous changes that are reshaping the kingdom. The company, now mired in scandals related to its corporate practices and the use of Facebook user data, conducted a detailed population study. It provided a psychological road map of the kingdom's citizenry and their sentiment toward the royal family, even testing potential reform steps as they charted a path forward to preserve stability."

[...]

The company's longtime chief executive, Nigel Oakes, has described its overall strategy as "group communication" that aims to shift the views of large swaths of a population. "We use the same techniques as Aristotle and Hitler," he once said. "We appeal to people on an emotional level to get them to agree on a functional level."

The notion that the company's psychological research played a role in plotting out the Saudi reform efforts could fuel renewed debate about the intentions of the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The prince is variously seen as his region's most important social and economic reformer, a ruthless opportunist or some combination of the two.

[Wally + 7]

I find it interesting that this is a hot topic at this time, I suspect that if Oil prices return to a status quo then the pressure to intervene in the way 'Saudi Life' is conducted will likely be reduced.

Those countries that consider they are being extorted to pay for Saudi infrastructure by means of higher oil prices, have spoken.

[Vogel DK + 7]

Cartels and price fixing among groups of companies in a sovereign country is illegal most places. The problem is that most of the OPEC countries plus Russia, although sovereign, are also running and their owning state controlled oil companies. 

Price fixing among groups of nations is against the spirit of international trade agreements. It seems that the EU-countries are the ones who are most supportive of viewing OPEC as a "legitimate" organisation.

The fact that the EU parliament has not been fighting a criminal organisation such as OPEC very aggressively, has been a mystery for years. Saudi Arabia is the leader of OPEC, so perhaps this is the beginning of the end of OPEC. 

 

US legislators are also trying to enact a Sherman Act called NOPEC: 

https://judiciary.house.gov/press-release/bipartisan-lawmakers-applaud-the-introduction-of-nopec-legislation/

PRESS RELEASE | MAY 24, 2018
Bipartisan Lawmakers Applaud the Introduction of NOPEC Legislation
Email
Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers in introducing the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act (H.R. 5904). This legislation would make the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) subject to antitrust law by removing a state immunity shield created by judicial precedent.